The Art of Fangirling - Part I

It was a blistering ninety-five degrees on a Tuesday afternoon in
September in The Woodlands, Texas, and my friend and I arrived at the gate of
the venue with our VIP passes in hand.

As is our custom, we moved mountains to get ourselves there, putting my
adorable husband on carpool duty for all four kids.

One never knows who you might encounter at these things, but
after seeing the documentary, An Affair of the Heart, about Rick Springfield’s Super Fans, I was anticipating some interesting characters.

And we were surely not disappointed.

Most of those stories will be told in Part II next week, as
there are too many words for today. As
crazy a fan as I might seem to some people, I am nowhere near the level of
rabid zealotry that some of these ladies possess.

As we made our way up to the stage to watch the sound check,
I felt a little wave of excitement when we came around the corner and saw Rick
and his band on stage rehearsing.

There’s just something that rock stars have that the rest of
us don’t.

A magnetic force-field that sucks you in and mesmerizes
you.

You know, when you’re an almost forty-five year old mom
whose days mostly consist of grocery shopping, doing laundry, and dealing with
kids, this was exactly the kind of shock to the system I needed to break me out
of my rut.

As we were watching the sound check, Joey, Rick’s assistant,
started passing around a yellow pad of sticky notes, and I could see a woman writing her name and what looked like numbers down and passing it to the next
person.

So, I followed suit (I thought) and wrote my name and number down on the sticky note on top.

I handed it back to Joey, and he gave me sort of a strange
look and said, “You can keep that.”

I showed my friend what I’d done, and she started dying
laughing.

“You’re trying to slip your phone number to Rick
Springfield!” she howled.

“You’re supposed to just put your name, so he’ll
know what to write when he signs your picture.”

Oh.

Geez, how embarrassing.
No wonder Joey looked at me like I was crazy. I bet he gets this ALL THE
TIME.

But no time to fret, because it was my turn to meet Rick and
have my picture taken. Take a deep breath, relax, act natural, I told myself. He's just a normal person.

And I must look super
normal to him compared to some of these other fans. I don’t have his face tattooed
on my leg, and I’m not shaking or crying.

I sidled up to him, expecting the prerequisite “I don’t
really want to hug you but I have to” arm loosely slung around my shoulders. But
what I got was this:

*swoon*

When he grabbed me and pulled me in close, I instantaneously saw all my girlhood images of him flash before my eyes:

The pinup from Tiger Beat 1982 (can I just add how
disturbing it is that I, a 12 year old, had a picture of a 30-something man on my wall?):

My first love!

Getting dropped off at the Preston Royal movie theater in
Dallas in 1984 to see Hard to Hold
(again, my mother let me see this movie, given this was the promotional
poster??):

He signed a picture of himself for me, plus my copy of Magnificent Vibration, a novel he wrote
recently that has garnered some great reviews, and I told him I was looking
forward to reading it. He said he hoped
I’d enjoy it and thanked me for coming.

It was a very pleasant but short experience. Not life changing, but somehow bringing me
full circle with the girl I once was, full of hopes, dreams, and innocent
fantasies.

It was an experience I’ll probably never get to replicate,
and one I’ll always remember.

I think the thing about turning forty-five is that you
realize that shit is getting real.

I see
too many cases of illness and misfortune around me. I know that my life is no longer a vast, never-ending open road in front of me, but more a path with an end in sight.

So maybe this is a midlife crisis,
or maybe it’s just a realization that this is the only life I’m going to get, so I
better step it up. Either way,
I intend to kick into high “bucket list” mode.

Given my ‘80s music junkie tendencies, I plan to meet as
many more of these lovelies as I can.

The ones that are still alive, that is.

Duran Duran, I’m coming for you next!

Coming soon: The Art
of Fangirling – Part II. You won’t want
to miss this glimpse into the world of Rick Springfield Super Fans, who
will stop at nothing to get to him. I’ll
give you this teaser now…that puddle on the ground you thought was beer might
be something far worse! Tune in to the blog next week for these fun stories and
more!

And enjoy this video I took at the concert. Rick puts on an amazing show and does not
disappoint! Check out the rock star move with the roses. And please excuse the
poor skills of the videographer. I correct my mistake about ten seconds in…

Comments

Well written. Having just signed up for a Sound Check/Meet and Greet myself (for a reason that truly escapes me...other than to say I felt "compelled" to do it), I'm looking forward to reading Part 2. You Only Live Once, right?